— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
No one does the Carlton quite like Carlton Banks. (Queue Tom Jones’s It’s Not Unusual.) Since actor Alfonso Ribeiro first performed the unique dance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, it has been readily associated with him. When the dance move recently appeared as a purchasable avatar dance
Video games offer a melting pot of intellectual property: trademark law, copyright law, and even patent law all come together in a delicious mix of intangible property. However, not all video game franchises are equal. Few can claim the same level of longevity, success, and nostalgia as Nintendo’s Mario Brothers series.
Among the most popular
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Earlier this month, the United States Postal Service (USPS) was ordered to pay $3.5 million in damages to a sculptor for copyright infringement.
Seeking a unique redesign for its “Forever” stamps, the USPS searched stock photos for images of the Statue of Liberty. They found a particularly striking photo
A few months ago, a federal district court in New York held that several publishers violated a photographer’s copyright when they embedded a photograph from one of the photographer’s Twitter posts. Goldman v. Breitbart News Network, No. 17-CV-3144 (KBF) (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 15, 2018). The photographer, Justin Goldman, had sued Breitbart News Network, TIME Inc.,
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
For anyone unfamiliar with internet cat personalities, Grumpy Cat is a well-known feline whose dwarfism and underbite culminate in a perpetual—and adorable—sour expression. Grumpy Cat’s real name is Tardar Sauce. In 2012, when Tardar Sauce was only a few months old, she became an internet sensation after a photo of
Moving along from Steve’s post on our alma mater of the University of Iowa, a former Rutgers football player has a more negative view of his former school. A few years ago, the Rutgers football program started allowing position groups to choose a nickname. The wide receivers are known as “Flight Crew,” the defensive linemen
This is the question being presented in a lawsuit pending in the Southern District of New York against the iconic band U2 and a majority of its band mates. Paul David Hewson (more well known as lead singer Bono), David Howell Evans (more well known as guitarist extraordinaire the Edge), drummer Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.,
At some point in this digital age, almost every individual or business in the creative space will discover that somebody has copied them. You may see it yourself, or you may get the stomach-dropping “Doesn’t this look an awful lot like…..” e-mail from a friend. It might be that potential client who said your design
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Fanfiction refers to the art of creating fiction using another author’s characters or universe. I was first introduced to the concept in high school, when a friend began writing Harry Potter fanfiction. (Side note: this is not one of those situations where the “friend” is actually me.) My friend used
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Have you ever seen an ad for something and thought to yourself, “Hey, I had that idea years ago!” Some people take that thought a step further. One Florida man claims to have invented the iPhone in 1992, and is suing Apple to the tune of over $10 billion.